Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Should the Cubs Retire #21 and Other Off-Day Musings...

With the Cubs announcing that #31 will be retired in honor of Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux, waxpaperbeercup recently asked if the Cubs should retire #21 in honor of Jason Marquis? Suprisingly, 40% thought the Cubs should do so...which I thought was a bit high for someone that was a Cub for just two years. 

All kidding aside, it's an intriguing question and I imagine I'll get a similar response here, but let's try it anway. For anyone who reads this site regularly, they'll know where I stand when it comes to Sammy Sosa. The man deserves far more gratitude from Cubs fans than the vitriol that seems to be prevalent, but let's put it to a vote and see if we can up the sample size.

 

- Fangraphs has been ranking the franchises using ownership, front office, major league and minor league talent and has the Cubs at #7 with an overall A- grade. There's not much point to quibble over some rather arbitrary ranking system other than the Brewers are #6. Let's get this straight Fangraphs, the only time Milwaukee finishes ahead of Chicago is if they have an all-city weigh-in.

- Baseball Digest Daily with a visual pleasing preview of the Chicago Cubs. Once you get past the obligatory 100-year and Billy Goat references (nails them right in the first few paragraphs), it's one of the more thorough previews I've read.

- The wife of Angels pitcher Rich Thompson has a blog on what it's like being the wife of a player trying to make the major league roster. Next up, the Angel Fan Wife starts a blog about what it's like married to a baseball blogger.

Last night around 11pm as I was dozing off, Rob started writing an article. When I woke up at 7:30 this morning, he was in bed still with his laptop. I'm not sure if he just woke up early or never went to bed.

Today, I banned the laptop from the dinner table so Rob doesn't read his baseball site during dinner.

It's Sunday afternoon and the Cubs are on TV which means my husband will be chatting with his anonymous online "friends". Every once in awhile I hear a random chuckle and I smile and tell him how cute I find him. In reality, I'm plotting my escape.

Rob suffers from what I call his male menstrual period. For women, it only lasts a few days, for my husband it goes from April to October and his mood shifts depending on the outcome of the Cubs game that day. One day, I'll go through menopause and be done with it, Rob's will last forever.

Rob didn't put on pants all day.

...a week and a half of this god-forsaken spring training left to go...

Comments

That's a hilarious blog entry. My wife feels the same sometimes. Ok, most of the time. ...oh yeah, and I voted yes. [edit] BUT, I'm offended by 'friends' in quotes. Remember when you and I went to the park and flew kites together, Rob? Our tandem bike trip? Our tickle fights? What does she expect of me?

Yes from me... I still get goosebumps thinking about those years... juice or no juice, it was still the best Cubs years of my lifetime. I ate up every bit of it and washed it down with gallons of Kool-Aid to boot. If I were to regret the Sammy years because of the juice, then I’d be forfeiting all those great years of being a diehard Cubs fan. Sammy meant just as much to the Cubs in his Era as Banks, Santo, Ryno, etc... and if were going to throw Maddux his number... Sammy certainly is more worthy to have his Cubs number retired than the Mad Dog...

...oh and a few days back... the wife was doing laundry in the other room and caught wind of multiple dolphin cackels, grizzly bear roars, and sealion barks after a HoffPower HR... that she let out a huge groan and a "are you fucking kidding me, already?"....

I'm a big Greg Maddux fan, but Sammy Sosa meant way more to the Cubs than Maddux did. Of course, I think retiring #31 has a lot more to do with Fergie Jenkins than it does with Maddux. Having said that, I don't think enough time has passed for Sammy's #21 to be retired. Give it some time and let some of the hard feelings pass. When the time is right, #21 should be retired.

i'd imagine they'd wait until... 1- the whole 'roids' era thing blows over (believe he is or isn't...he's a huge part of the era and it's not cuz you can say he was 100% clean). 2- he's old/sick (hopefully old before sick) enough to forget any "well, maybe" and just remember what the dude did at face value

I think I'd vote for Sosa to join the Hall of Fame before I'd vote in favor of retiring his number at Wrigley.

IF we can set aside the Steroids' cloud, (and Sosa is well, less conclusively guilty than McGwire, Clemens, Bonds, Palmeiro and Tejada. At least based on what we know right now,), then he clearly is a Hall of Famer. Operative word being If.

But retiring a number is in some ways an even higher threshold than the Hall of Fame. A retired number isn't just honoring a player's skill on the field, it's honoring their place in the team and city's history and identity. There's a sense of legacy in it that is different from the more-or-less fuzzily defined standards of the Hall.

And there, I just don't see Sosa as having made the same sort of contributions to the Cubs' identity and legacy as a Jenkins or Banks or Santo or Sandberg or Williams or for that matter, Caray. Granted, this is an exceptionally subjective, idiosyncratic value-call I'm making, but deciding to retire a number IS a value-judgment in a way that evaluating say, Schilling's place in the Hall, is not. I can't tease out the good part of Sosa's tenure with the Cubs from the bad, and there's enough bad that I vote for letting the Hall honor his contributions. Subjectively, T.

They should wait a few years but there is no question that Sammy Sosa deserves to have his number retired. He did more for the Cubs than Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg or Ron Santo ever did. And yeah, I'll say it, Ernie Banks too. Sammy filled the stadium better than any Cub ever.

Also, I should add a defense of the Fan Graphs rating: they're evaluating the franchises in their ability to regularly contend for a world championship from here on out, not on what was done in 2008 or earlier. The disparity between the minor league systems is pretty significant. And the grade of the Cubs' ownership basically was an "incomplete."

Where in your wife's diary does she get around to mentioning Carlos? ~ducks~

[ ]

In reply to by Mister Whipple

You like that he topped out at 92? Less than a year ago he was topping out at 99. I know he has to ease his way into it and all, but the dude lost a TON of velocity since July. Let's hope it comes back.

Re: #1 -- I'm not against it, but I voted no. I think there are still a couple fresh wounds. Let's wait a few years. Right now, I'm with Ryno here. I'll even go a little farther: I want the Cubs to with the World Series. I want them to have players who want to do whatever is necessary to win the World Series. Right now, when I think of Sammy, I remember all of the missed cut-off men on throws, the dodgy defense, the "sometimes I feel like using all of my tools to win and sometimes I don't give a fuck about anything but swinging like an idiot 'cause I might hit the ball 500 feet". I loved the talent I saw in Sammy Sosa when he first joined the White Sox. I used to watch for the News highlights for Cubs replays and for anything spectacular that Sammy might have done while playing for the Sox (this is the only Sox player I can think of whom I can say that about). I don't want to spend the time to recount all of the energy I invested in watching him over the years. In the end, I wanted Sammy to want to win more than anything. I think that, at the end, this was not his focus. After the Cubs win the World Series, I may be willing to give special recognition to his achievements by retiring his number. Right now, I only want to honor players who just wanted to win, baby. And in my opinion, Sammy was not one of those players by the time he left. He probably brought more heat on himself by wearing #21, Roberto Clemente's number, and claiming it was because of how he idolized Clemente. Sammy is hurt by the comparison. If you idolize Clemente, then play like him. Use all of your tremendous talents all of the time for the single purpose of winning. I saw Clemente play. He was one of those fucking bastards who did something to hurt the Cubs anytime he was involved in any play, anywhere on the field. Players who got a hit to right field habitually NEVER rounded first out of fear of getting picked off from a throw behind them. It was the weirdest, most cautious baserunning I've ever seen. Fielding, throwing, baserunning and especially hitting -- he was fucking disgusting. You hated seeing the Pirates come to town in the late 60's & early 70's because of him. It was like Pujols -- less power but he could effect the game in more ways. Sammy had the talent to be that kind of player -- plus the extraordinary power -- and I believe that kind of talent -- disciplined and dedicated to winning in all facets of the game -- could have taken the Cubs over the top. Sorry, man. The Cubs gotta win the Series first before I can look back to honor the individual achievements of a player who had the talent to take them there but lost the focus and discipline and commitment to get them there. That's just how I feel right now.

[ ]

In reply to by JoePepitone

I respect your opinion--a world series win would cure a lot of old ills. Kind of like how Boston brought Buckner back after their 2004 win. But I have to note that one of the reasons I respect Sammy's time with the Cubs is outside his talent and results, which were both considerable. I also have tremendous respect for how hard he played and for how often. Following his injury-shortened 96 season (with 40 homers!), he never played in less than 150 games until 2003. Those years, of course, correspond to his most productive, with the exception of the disappointing 1997. What was great about Sosa was not only that during his prime, every at-bat held the possibility for great things, but also that he played in almost every game. In fact, I agree with something Rob Neyer once wrote--the only legitimate claim that Sosa had over McGwire for the 1998 MVP is that he played in many more games, thereby providing greater value to his club. It's something that gets overlooked with all the steroid suppositions, corked bat critics and manufactured rage over his skipping a meaningless day of work--but Sammy Sosa played hard and often for his team.

Wow Honey, you really nailed this one! Pretty much right on. But, I would like to add that I am waiting for the day that our twins ask me if the Cubs won that day before you walk in the door at night. Better yet, I'll make a sign on the fridge and post a W or L. It will let them practice their letter/sound recognition as well as serve as a daily horoscope. They'll know whether they can attack you when you walk in the door, or go color a pretty picture to cheer you up. You know this is coming... All kidding aside, I appreciate your passion for the Cubs and I'm not plotting my escape...yet. ;)

Vote no for Jason's bid to enter the HOF. The 2008 season's #21 had an interesting day starting for the Rockies (vs Angel Fan Wife's team)... Marquis (L, 0-3) IP 3.1 H 10 R 12 ER 11 BB 4 SO 1 HR 0 ERA 14.1 Final Rocks 11 Angels 18 ...and Orange Guy was 1-5 (single), as a DH

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.